Plantation Bay traffic light awaits power

It was a hard-fought battle by some residents of the community to get the traffic signal that now, in some ways, serves as a memorial to two women killed in a crash there in 2012.

By Julie Murphyjulie.murphy@news-jrnl.com

The lights are flashing now and soon there will be a new stoplight at U.S. 1 and the entrance to Plantation Bay, officials said. It was a hard-fought battle by some residents of the community to get the traffic signal that now, in some ways, serves as a memorial to two women killed in a crash there in 2012. “The work was signed off on last week (Sept. 12), and all we are waiting on is power,” said Steve Olson, spokesman for Florida Department of Transportation. The light will operate in flash mode for about a week before being switched to a regular cycle, he said. “I think it's good that they (FDOT) got it done,” Kathy Pounds, president of the Plantation Bay Community Association, said Tuesday.Members of the homeowners association in 2009, and again in 2011, asked state transportation officials for a traffic signal at the U.S. 1 entrance of Plantation Bay. Both times they were told studies had concluded the area did not meet requirements for a traffic light.State transportation officials reconsidered after two women died in a crash at the intersection in May 2012. Harriet C. Look, 76, and Diane M. Teske, 68, who both lived in Plantation Bay, died of injuries suffered when Look tried to turn left to head south on U.S. 1 but pulled into the path of a northbound truck.Neither of the women have family members in Plantation Bay, Pounds said, and their homes have been sold.In October 2012, state transportation officials authorized lowering the speed in both directions to 60 mph on U.S. 1 in front of Plantation Bay. At that time, there were no plans to install a traffic light. “They (FDOT) have their protocols to follow,” Pounds said. “They did several surveys and, over time, they agreed that a light there was the solution.”The Flagler County Commission in February approved a modification to the Master Traffic Signal Maintenance Compensation Agreement that cleared the way for the light's installation. Work was completed on schedule, said Chris Cairns, assistant district traffic operations engineer for the state Department of Transportation.“There is a crash history at this intersection,” Cairns said previously. “A signal is what is preferred by residents.” There were 24 crashes that required reports at the intersection between 2003 and 2012, according to FDOT. Three of those crashes involved fatalities.The FDOT also has a drainage repair project under way along the northbound lanes of U.S. 1, a little north of the new traffic light, causing traffic to be reduced to one lane. “It is about a $147,000 job,” Olson said. “There will be drainage repairs to the ditch, cross pipes and repair to a driveway.”Olson said the project is expected to last more than 40 days. Additionally, FDOT crews are resurfacing the roadway from the Volusia County line to St. Johns County.“The southbound lane will be totally reconstructed from Black Branch Bridge (south of the Bunnell city limits) to the White Eagle Lounge at Old Kings Road, with traffic being switched to one lane each way northbound and southbound for approximately four months.” The $8.3-million project will take more than a year to complete.